The top 10 tech and science stories of 2013

10. The first bionic eye receives a firmware update to increase its capabilities

Our final story of the year is the portentous story of the bionic eye that was upgraded, via a firmware update, to enable color vision and improve its resolution. This is a delicious hint of what the future will be like, when implants — both medical and elective — are commonplace.

In this case, Second Sight — the first bionic eye (retinal prosthesis) maker to receive FDA approval in the US — upgraded the software of its Argus II implant to improve its resolution, focus, and zooming. Despite only being originally designed to deliver black and white vision, the company also managed to add the perception of color — which is particularly awesome when you remember that the Argus II is implanted in patients who have lost the cells that perceive color (retinitis pigmentosa). It turns out that, by programming the Argus II to stimulate the optic nerve with specific frequencies and timings, patients perceive colors.

For now, implants like the Argus II are purely for patients afflicted by debilitating diseases — but one day, when the technology eventually reaches the point where it provides better-than-human capabilities, the surgery will become elective. For now, in 2013, we are looking at prosthetic arms and eyes and brains that are orders of magnitude less flexible and powerful than their flesh-and-blood counterparts. But if technology has taught us anything, it’s that Moore’s law eats orders of magnitude for breakfast. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in 10 or 15 years, you are reading ExtremeTech with bionic eyes.

Nice article, I remember reading about most of these. When that 3d printed gun came out, people started going all gung ho about “gun control” or whatever the hot political topic was those days, as if “banning” them was going to do anything. There are much more profitable things to make than a little plastic gun, like 3d models of Batman made on a computer. 3D printers are going to be the next big thing. Also graphene. I’d put my money in those 2 things…if I had any.

luzzjl524

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Great recap of some major stories. I remember reading about some/most of these things on ET, but it’s great to be reminded of them and then go read about them a little more. I’m forwarding this out to a few people. They’ll appreciate this.

Joel Detrow

Some of these excite me way more than others. I felt the Helium-filled HDD is not really a game-changer, because consumers don’t buy HDDs to be fast, they buy them for the storage capacity. If they want fast, they get an SSD or hybrid. Helium-filled HDDs are going to be an option for enterprises, and one problem I see with it is the leakage of that helium, which we’re quite simply running out of.

As for the 3D printing, I would have preferred the stem cell printing over the gun printing, as it’s a more exotic form of printing that has the potential to do far more good. Overall, though, it’s a great list.

Izzy Rallins

I would be more excited about technologies that allow 2.5″ HDDs to perform better and spin faster.

I’m a bit confused by the line “You can talk all you want about
the sluggishness or poor reliability of spinning discs, and the
awesomeness of solid-state storage, but hard drives are undoubtedly here
to stay for a long time to come”

Since when are SSDs any more reliable than hard disks? If you buy a quality 5″ hard disc from somebody like Samsung (WD and Seagate hard drives are CRAP compared to samsung!) and do what google does with their hard drives and leave them spinning 24/7 in a well ventilated area, they will last for a long, long time. I’ve actually only had one 5″ HDD fail on me and I own five of them, some from as long ago as 2004. Turning disks on and off (ie NOT letting them run 24/7) will actually cause more wear and tear.

Izzy Rallins

Not to mention my Samsung Spinpoint F 1TB HDD (my main disk) has a write speed of 150MB/s and a read of 250MB/s… which makes HDDs “fast” compared to the old IDE hard discs that had a read and write speed of 30MB/s !

Renato

So Top Gear 3000! Amazing!

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nice article

shadowtech64

deus ex human revolution is becoming a reality

The Greatest freedom

Why not have a vacuum instead?

Map Ashoona

Excellent site for entertainment and info of all kinds. Awesome.

Pankaj

Thank you sharing such knowledgeable articles…

ShasLa40

I thought the picture was a dalek of some sort.

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